EMCC falls at Itawamba after opening April with three straight baseball DH splits

FULTON – East Mississippi Community College's recent trend of taking nightcap victories to earn baseball doubleheader splits was interrupted during Wednesday's MACCC action when Itawamba prevailed, 13-3 and 7-6, over the visiting Lions at ICC's Roy Cresap Field.

In each of the three prior conference baseball doubleheaders during the month of April, EMCC had managed to bounce back with nightcap wins after dropping series-opening decisions to Mississippi Gulf Coast, Northeast Mississippi and reigning NJCAA Division II champion Pearl River.

After falling, 13-3, despite totaling 10 hits on offense during Wednesday's first game at ICC, the Lions kept battling back in the second contest. EMCC starting pitcher Cooper Garrison limited the first-inning damage in the nightcap by leaving two ICC runners stranded in scoring position after allowing three runs and issuing three walks.

The Lions matched the Indians' three-run first inning with three runs of their own two frames later. EMCC took advantage of an inning-opening infield error and a walk to produce three runs off ICC starting pitcher Ben Davis. Will Crawford and Carson Gault had RBI singles for the Lions in the third inning to knot the score at 3-3.

The visitors had to play catch-up again later in the seven-inning nightcap after the Indians scored once in the fourth and twice more the next frame to move ahead, 6-3, after five innings. EMCC responded again with another three-run effort in the sixth. Four total walks in the inning by three different ICC hurlers led to the game-tying runs by the Lions.

After stranding the bases loaded in the sixth, ICC reliever Bo Rock then left a Lion baserunner in scoring position in the top of the seventh inning before supplying the game-winning RBI single in the home half off EMCC reliever Joe Scarborough.

Offensively in the second game for the Lions, Zack Griffith added two more hits to go along with his prior 2-for-4 effort at the plate in the opener.

The home-standing Indians pretty much controlled the scheduled nine-inning opening contest from the outset against EMCC. Itawamba scored in each of the first four frames, while the Lions' only runs came in the second and third innings off ICC starting pitcher Brady Davis.

Itawamba increased its 5-3 lead after three innings by scoring four more runs in the sixth and adding another in the eighth to reach the run-rule margin of 10 runs.

With Walker Swearingen getting the start on the mound for EMCC, the Lions went through five pitchers during the opening game.

Crawford, Griffith and Tanner Parker led EMCC's 10-hit offensive team effort with two hits apiece in the opener.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (19-21, 7-13 MACCC) return to Scooba for a week-long baseball home stand by playing host to Southwest Mississippi on Saturday (April 15) and Northwest Mississippi the following Tuesday (April 18) at Gerald Poole Field.